With all the salad greens you’ve been getting lately, you might be wondering what you can do to jazz up your weekly lettuce, arugula, and other fresh greens that come in your box. You may or may not have googled ‘lettuce recipes’ only to be met by the stark reality that salad is salad, and the only real way to create interest in fresh greens (even the freshest, local-est, and friendliest fresh greens found in your CSA box) is to dress them up nicely. Fortunately for you, you are also getting some of the key ingredients in this week’s box to make a dressing fancy enough to take out to a fancy social-distancing night on the town!
One of the principles of permaculture is to Integrate rather than segregate. This Saturday, a bunch of us joined hands in working on the compost bins. Instead of sending off one or two people to work on it, we had an “all hands on deck” experience that made a huge project into something that got done before lunch.
In the picture, you can see only master gardener Felipe layering chicken feathers onto the carbon layer of the hot “lasagna” compost, but trust me–we all got our hands in this community project!
Raspberry Vinaigrette
Ingredients in a recipe work the same way: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Raspberries are great. Lettuce and Arugula are amazing! Marjoram is my new favourite herb–use it where you might use oregano. So multiply great times amazing times favourite and you have the power of integration.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
- 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinaigrette
- 1/2 pint Raspberries (in this week’s CSA box!)
- ¼ cup red onion or 1 small shallot*
- 1 clove garlic*
- 10 leaves of marjoram (in this week’s CSA box!)
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
*If you don’t have access to a food processor, use onion and garlic powder.
Instructions:
1. Add the dry ingredients, onion, and garlic to the food processor. Process these first to be sure they get nicely minced.
2. Add the vinaigrette to the processor. Turn it on and slowly pour in the olive oil so the whirring blade whips it into the mixture, “emulsifying” the oil in with the vinegar. Remember, integrate rather than segregate!
3. Serve immediately or refrigerate promptly. Since this dressing has fresh fruit, only make enough to keep in your fridge for 3-4 days at most. It might separate, so give ‘er a stir before serving.
